Reflections in Moonlight
by TorontoBatFan
Summary: This is based off of the 2012 film, as there's no category in Movies. A few months after the events of the movie, Carolyn and Victoria discuss their new realities one night when Carolyn returns from a moonlight prowl.


_Greetings dear readers_. _Welcome to my first _Dark Shadows_ fanfic. This is based off of the 2012 film, and is set a few months after the events of the movie_.

_For the regular readers of my _Kick-Ass _and _Let Me In _fics, I hope you like it. _

_I actually have some more fics in mind here._

_As my regular readers know, I love reviews. :-D_

_And awayyyyy we go. :-D_

* * *

Spring, 1973

Spring moonlight shone down, through intermittent clouds, upon Widow's Hill and the vast Collinwood Estate. It illuminated the rocky coastline where Atlantic waves relentlessly pounded the shore. It illuminated a construction site, revealing a half-rebuilt mansion along with various pieces of heavy equipment that the contractors had left there when work had ended the previous day -perhaps not surprisingly, none of the construction workers wanted to linger at Collinwood once their workday ended. Nobody wished to be caught there as the sun set. It illuminated the huge woodlot, which comprised the bulk of the Collins property…and the figure that emerged from it.

The figure didn't walk exactly like an animal, but nor did it walk exactly like a human. It appeared to be a very large wolf...but seemed to walk on two legs and its front paws looked very much like human hands. It bounded across the clearing where Collinwood Manor had stood and would soon stand again. It let out a final mournful bay to the moon and then looped towards a clump of trees when it stopped and began to tremble as the moon set.

The creature's body contorted. Bones and joints seemed to spasm as the timbre of its growl seemed to change, becoming less animalistic and more human and higher pitched. Hair and fur began recede as limbs reverted from that of an animal to that of an almost sixteen year old girl. A final painful sounding cracking as the body underwent its final realignment and the naked figure of Carolyn Collins Stoddard was left on her hands and knees on the damp grass.

Carolyn coughed a few times and then took a deep breath. It usually took a couple of minutes to re-orient herself when the change ended. It had gotten easier since she'd first realized what she was…what that witch Angelique had done to her. However, the change still always left her worn out right afterwards…and usually wanting a shower, a good breakfast and some sleep; in that order. (Once she'd recovered, strangely enough, she found that her strength and speed in her human body was overall far greater than a normal human would be.)

Carolyn rose to her bare feet, brushing some wet dirt and grass from her knees and elbows. She inhaled deeply. Her senses were now far sharper, especially now that she'd accepted this and begun to use them. As always, there was a cornucopia of scents that met her nostrils. There was the sea air that came in with the Atlantic waves. Within the woods, there were animals that had hidden away as she –a predator that they'd never encountered before- had passed, but were now venturing out again. She cast a glance towards where Collinwood Manor was being rebuilt. From there, she could smell sawdust, plaster, etc…She could even smell the perspiration from the builders.

Then another scent met her nostrils. It was coming from behind her. It was nothing alive. It was the scent of something dead…or, more accurately, undead. Another small whiff, then…

"Good morning, Vicky." Carolyn said quietly, as she turned around.

"Good morning, Carolyn." Victoria Collins (nee Winters, nee Maggie Evans) said cheerfully. She held out a bathrobe for Carolyn. "I saw where you left it last night. I went out and brought it in when it started to rain." The newest member of the Collins family said with a smile, displaying her prominent canines that gleamed white, matching her pale, pale skin.

"Thanks" Carolyn said with a smile as she accepted her robe and pulled it over her bare body. Before, she'd changed to old, worn clothes on nights of the full moon. However, since all her clothes now were new –replaced since Collinwood was destroyed- she didn't want to get them trashed when she roamed the woods in her animal state. Now, her habit was to leave a robe outside for her to put on when she reverted to her human form.

"Could you smell me?"

"You and Barnabas are pretty hard to miss."

"How'd you know it was me and not him?"

"Barnabas doesn't wear perfume." Carolyn explained.

"I see" The vampire said with a smile as the two began to walk through the forest path to the structure known as The Old House. It had originally been built and used by Barnabas and his family when they first settled in Collinsport. It had been where they lived during the fifteen years it had taken to build Collinwood. And, it was where the existing Collins family had been living in the months since Collinwood had been destroyed. It wasn't a small house by normal standards…But it was when compared to Collinwood. The family was getting by there, but they were all looking forward to the rebuilding of Collinwood being completed –which, as Barnabas was immensely grateful to learn, would only take a matter of months, versus the fifteen years it had taken previously.

Luckily, the family was definitely getting along much better now than they had before. Carolyn, now that she no longer had to hide the fact she was a werewolf, had mellowed out into a much more pleasant and social girl -at least, compared to how she'd been before. (She was still a teenage girl with all the inherent moods). She found she got along far better with her mother –indeed, she had a newfound respect for her after seeing how she handled everything so calmly during and after Angelique's final battle with the family.

David's insistence on seeing and talking to his mother's ghost was now accepted as simple fact. The times that he would go off to seemingly communicate with her alone, was regarded as his private time with her and everyone left him alone.

Elizabeth had taken all the stresses in stride. As she told David as Collinwood burned…They would endure, as they always had. And she personified that trait. She had calmly overseen them taking up residence in The Old House –which had needed some work itself, as it had been long abandoned. She and Barnabas had arranged for the wreckage of the old Collinwood cleared away after salvaging many items that hadn't burned. They had also calmly taken over operations of Angel Bay Cannery. That had been done with Barnabas' "influence". Angelique –secure in the belief of her own immortality- had left no will. All it took was Barnabas tracking down who her lawyer was, some simply hypnosis…and it was discovered that Angelique had sold Angel Bay Cannery to Barnabas Collins. It was simple, really. Barnabas had just hypnotized the lawyer and the two "witnesses" to the "signing of the contract"; and the Collins family now owned both of the town's cannery businesses. As Elizabeth pointed out, it was far more than their personal revenge against Angelique. Angel Bay was about the town's biggest employer prior to Barnabas' reviving the Collins Cannery. The Collins family keeping it open meant that the town's economy would stay alive.

Elizabeth had also worried what would happen after the townspeople had seen Barnabas and Angelique revealed as supernatural beings. However, it appeared that the Collinsport people who'd arrived that night had been under some sort of spell of Angelique's. (When Carolyn thought about it, that made sense. In this day and age -an era when people like Kitty Genovese would scream for help and be ignored- since when did regular citizens form impromptu posses to try and bring in a suspected killer? Clearly Angelique had put them under some sort of spell.) After her death, it appeared that nobody recalled much about that night. Willie reported that anyone who talked about it at the Blue Whale recalled watching the fire at the Collins Cannery; Angelique showed up...and then it went vague for everyone. The next thing most people could all agree on was being back in town with no clear memory of what happened in betwee, or even having been up a the Collins estate.

As for the tape Angelique produced for the sheriff, with Barnabas admitting to murdering Julia Hoffman...Apparently all the (former) members of Angel Bay Cannery's Board of Directors had come forward (following a nocturnal visit from Barnabas and Victoria) and 'confessed' that the tape was a fake. They also confessed to Angelique having blown up the Collins Cannery (which was also in the midst of a rebuilding). In fact, they were so guilt ridden, they confessed to the murders of the construction crew and the hippies. The fact that they all had alibis at the time of the murders had precluded them from being charged for those crimes. However, they had all pled guilty to helping blow up the Collins Cannery. All were now safely out of the way in such places as the Maine State Prison in Thomason, Downeast Correctional Facility, Bolduc Correctional Facility, and Shawshank Prison. That seemed to satisfy Sheriff Bill Patterson, who had decided that not ever mentioning what he saw that night was the best for his sanity, career and life in general.

Thus, so far as Carolyn could gleam from the talk at school, the Collins may not be the most loved family in town…But the town didn't seem to actively hate them any longer and were grateful that they'd kept jobs in town. People, she thought, might even suspect the truth of some of the things that happened at Collinwood. But, so long as the Collins family owned the towns' main source of employment...the citizens of Collinsport were not inclined to bite the hand that employed them. It was cynical perhaps...But it served the Collins family now well enough.

"Where is he anyway?" Carolyn asked as she stretched out her muscles –they tended to be sore after a night in the woods.

"In the house, doing what he does most nights."

"Reading?" Barnabas was cutting a swath through most of the Collinsport library and had ordered in books –especially histories- that they didn't have.

"He's determined to bring himself up to date. He wants to be a man of the 20th Century." Victoria said with pride as she thought of her husband, sitting for hours a night, poring through books on history, literature…everything he could get his hands on.

"He still has a ways to go. He thinks _Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?_ is 'a most involving mystery anthology'." Carolyn said with a giggle.

"Yes. But at least he didn't react the way he did when Elizabeth sent Willie to pick up McDonald's that night." Victoria laughed, despite herself.

"'The sign of Mephistopheles in this house?...Begone symbol of Satan!'" Carolyn laughed in imitation of Barnabas' panicked reaction at seeing Willie bringing in a bag with the large golden "M" on the side.

"I must admit that was funny…But, he's trying so hard to fit in."

"I know. I've gotta admit, I really didn't like him when he first showed up. He was weird. He was creepy. He took my spot at the table. But now…I can't imagine the place without him. And he's better with David than Uncle Roger ever was…or even tried to be." Carolyn said in disgust at the thought of her useless uncle. He'd walked out on a ten-year old boy who only had a desperate want for his father to love him and pay attention to him. Barnabas was almost two centuries removed from the current Collins family, but had easily settled into the role of patriarch. David had clearly begun to look at Barnabas as his surrogate father; a role that Barnabas was all too happy to fill.

"Yes…I think that my whole life was destined to take me here and to him."

"Do you ever miss it?"

"Miss what?"

"The sun…Being, normal, I guess."

"Carolyn, I was never normal. I saw ghosts for as long as I could remember. Josette's ghost led me here. When I learned what Barnabas was, I knew then that I could never go back to a normal life. To become like this…It was the only way for me. When I opened my eyes at the bottom of Widow's Hill, it felt…right. And, it was like it opened a door for me. All of a sudden, I could remember what Josette knew…what she felt…what she was like. I almost think that becoming like this merged me with Josette. I can't explain how…But it's what I think. And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You're so different than before. Your mother thinks so. Everyone does."

"I guess…I guess I was angry. I was angry that I didn't understand what had happened that made me like this. I was angry that I had to hide it all the time. I was angry that I couldn't be normal. I thought that if I could leave her…go to New York, or someplace…I could be normal then, somehow."

"You don't think that anymore?" Victoria asked gently.

"No. I guess I've realized now that the Collins family isn't normal. Whether it's because of Angelique, or something else, we'll never be normal. This is what I am. I've accepted it. I've learned to live with it. And, to tell you the truth…I don't think I'd want to give it up if I could. This is who I am." She had realized that the night of Angelique's attack. She had realized that this was her family and she would use her abilities to defend them to end. As such, she'd leapt at Angelique, intent on ripping her apart. It was at that moment, Carolyn thought, that she'd truly embraced being a Collins.

"Is that why you turned down your mother's offer to go to that school in New York?"

"Yeah. I'm a Collins. I belong here." Carolyn said with an accepting smile. She looked towards where Collinwood was being rebuilt. "It's funny. I couldn't wait to get away from Collinwood before. Now, I can't wait until we move back in."

"I know. I didn't live there very long, but I still feel a connection to it and a desire to live there again. Barnabas and Elizabeth said it's going to be exactly like it was before…aside from having more modern plumbing and heating and such."

"They're even putting in some secret passages." Carolyn said with a smile.

"Barnabas says that in another month, the main wing should be ready to be occupied if we don't mind workmen still milling about. The whole house should be finished by Halloween." Victoria reported.

"I wonder if anyone will dare come up here for candy?" Carolyn said. Nobody had ever come up here before; at least, not in her lifetime so far back as she could remember. Would that change now?

"I don't know. But how about we get you some breakfast?" Victoria said as she looked out to the Atlantic. The eastern horizon was beginning to pale. She thought it would be another hour or so, until she and Barnabas had to retreat to the cellar where they rested during the day. (Their bedroom in the new Collinwood would be far grander and secure from daylight).

"Thanks" Carolyn said with a tired smile as the two supernatural Collins women walked silently through the night towards The Old House.


End file.
